There has long been a need, exacerbated by today's overseas contingency operations, for vertical take-off and landing (“VTOL”) vehicles that are capable of being deployed from confined spaces. In fact, many situations favor vehicles, specifically UAVs, that can launch and recover vertically without requiring complex or heavy ground support equipment. The ability to organically deploy a UAV is particularly attractive in situations such as forward-operating bases, clandestine locales, payload emplacement, and on-the-move situations. Until recently, however, the efficiency penalty associated with incorporating a hover phase of flight, the complexity associated with transition from vertical to horizontal flight, and the necessity to reduce or eliminate exposure of ground personnel to exposed high-speed rotors have hindered attempts to develop organically deployable VTOL UAVs, which are expected to be very important assets. Furthermore, the new competitive landscape for VTOL vehicles now requires long endurance, which can require flights in excess of 8 hours.
As a result, high aspect ratio (i.e., the ratio of a wing's length to its breadth) fixed-wing designs are gaining advantage over ducted designs and rotorcraft. An exemplary high aspect ratio fixed-wing design is the Flexrotor, which is available from Aerovel Corporation. The Flexrotor is described by Aerovel as a tabletop-sized robotic aircraft that offers a combination of long range and endurance, together with VTOL capabilities. For further information, see, for example, Aerovel Corporation's website.
Despite prior attempts, the need exists for a system, method and apparatus that allows organic deployment and operation of long-endurance, high-aspect ratio VTOL UAVs from confined spaces.